


even if you're separated, you'll never be alone

by Wahmenitu



Category: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, And I will not take it away from him, Because this boy has SUPPORT, Found Family, Gen, Miles as the "adjusted" Spiderman, Platonic Soulmates, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-13
Updated: 2021-02-13
Packaged: 2021-03-12 17:41:31
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,503
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29388582
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wahmenitu/pseuds/Wahmenitu
Summary: ‘You are a collage of all of the people you’ve ever met, baby. You are the book that binds them together. You are so, so special, Miles. You’re going to change the world someday.’Miles thought about her words often. By fourteen, Miles had three more marks. One for his uncle, one for his dorm mate, Ganke, and one for Peter Parker, who had saved his life and then sacrificed his own. A spider spanned the nape of his neck, and Miles hid it with hoodies and sweatshirts and backpacks and later, with a mask.
Comments: 17
Kudos: 64
Collections: Team Red Server Valentine's Day Pop





	even if you're separated, you'll never be alone

**Author's Note:**

> a play on the soulmate slash soul mark trope.
> 
> this is completely au to all of my other fics and exists in a standalone universe.
> 
> give some love to my lovely artist, shelbsart.tumblr.com!

When you met important people, they left a mark on you. Most people only got one or two marks. It was where the popular idea that these were soulmate marks came from. It wasn’t exactly true, though. It had something to do with genes. Some people were more impressionable than others, or something like that. Some people were unfazed by people who came and went in their lives. Others were greatly affected.

It was hard to put hard evidence to something completely undefinable, though.

How did the universe decide who would be important to you and who wouldn’t? Miles liked to decide that kind of thing for himself, frankly. But it wasn’t just the marks the universe decided Miles was destined for. Because he was “impressionable” and then he was one of two Spidermen and then he was the only Spiderman and then-

Then he wasn’t.

The universe seemed to decide that Miles was gonna have a lot thrown at him, but that was okay. He was great at multitasking.

  
  
  
  
  
  


When Miles was seven years old, he got his first two marks. They were for his mama and his dad, he knew immediately. He went to show his mama and she pulled him close to press a warm kiss to his forehead.

She told Miles that he was special. That everyone had soulmates, but sometimes, people had lots of them. People they were fated to meet. Maybe you’d only see them once, maybe they’d be your friend for a year or so before you grew apart. But they’d change your life forever.

_‘You are a collage of all of the people you’ve ever met, baby. You are the book that binds them together. You are so, so special, Miles. You’re going to change the world someday.’_

Miles thought about her words often. He thought about them when his dad stopped talking to his Uncle Aaron. He thought about them when he had to say goodbye to his friends at Brookland Middle. And he thought about them while he raced through the streets, pursued by a masked stranger right after he’d watched Spiderman die. By fourteen, Miles had three more marks. One for his uncle, one for his dorm mate Ganke, and one for Peter Parker, who had saved his life and then sacrificed his own.

A spider spanned the nape of his neck, and Miles hid it with hoodies and sweatshirts and backpacks and later, with a mask.

  
  
  
  
  
  


The marks didn’t always happen right away, like it had with Peter.

(He’d met Peter Parker’s eyes through his damaged mask and felt the strange hot and cold sensation tingling over the back of his neck. He’d known then that his life was going to change. _Was_ changing.)

And for about five minutes, he’d been okay with it. Spiderman was going to teach him how to do this. _The_ Spiderman was going to make sure he was okay. And then there was Fisk, and a roar, and honestly, Miles tried not to remember the rest of it. He was fourteen, and Spiderman was both dead and not dead.

Because now _he_ was Spiderman.

  
  
  
  
  
  


After it all, (the collider and saying goodbye and _finally finally_ hugging his dad,) when he was at home in his room and could finally take a breath, he checked himself over. The fact that he’d escaped a one on one with Fisk with no visible injury was miracle enough, but he couldn’t believe that he had no new marks after meeting the other Spiders. They had, quite literally, shoved their way into his space and his heart and settled there, and he had absolutely nothing to show for it. He might never see them again, and all he had was one selfie with Gwen and Peter B’s words thrumming under his skin.

_‘I love you, I am so proud of you!’_

At least he had that. Some people didn’t get a chance to say everything they needed to say before-

Well.

Just before.

But this couldn’t be the end of their story. There was a whole multiverse out there where Miles’s friends were waiting for him, if he could just figure out how to get to it.

  
  
  
  
  
  


He reached Gwen first. And he had a feeling it was because she had been trying just as hard to reach back to him.

“Miles! Got a minute?”

He felt it, then. Gwen’s mark, burning hot and cold and not at all painful into his skin across his ribs. He’d look later, but for now he was just happy to see her. To see her face and be able to reach out and clasp hands with her and he _finally, finally wasn’t alone again_.

“Oh- shit,” Gwen blurted when Ganke spun in his seat and saw the multiverse window open. It was almost comical, how similar his reaction was to the day he had first caught all of the spiders huddled on his ceiling. He tipped back abruptly in his chair and hit the floor with a thud. Miles winced in sympathy.

“He’ll be okay,” he promised at Gwen’s dubious look. “I’ll explain it to him. He just wasn’t ready for the whole multiverse thing. Neither was I, honestly,” he admitted. But he couldn’t stop _smiling_ . Gwen was _here,_ (sort of,) and that meant the other Spiders were only but so far away. He could reach them, if he tried hard enough.

“I’ll leave you to it,” Gwen decided. The sun was setting in her verse. He could hear her dad calling her down for dinner. “I’ll talk to you soon, Miles,” she gave him a two fingered salute. The window closed with a wink of light, and Miles jumped down from his bunk to get Ganke settled. Folded his glasses and set them on his desk, tossed a blanket over him, and then moved to the mirror. Might as well look now.

There, curling across his ribs, was a line of jagged musical notes. A laugh burst from his chest before he could stop himself. It was just so _Gwen_. He’d show her, some time.

Maybe when he got around to asking if any of the other Spiders even _had_ the whole soulmark thing going on.

  
  
  
  
  
  


Miles had absolutely _no idea_ what was on the top of his foot the next time he looked at it. He just knew it was from Peni. He knew, objectively, that he was a smart kid. A baby genius, B called him. But Peni was in a league of her own. If he was a baby genius, she was an embryo mastermind, because Miles couldn’t even _begin_ to parse what he was looking at.

The best he could come up with was math.

And because he didn’t sweat the small stuff, that was good enough for him. There was always the fact that they were from different verses, Peni was from the future, and who knew what kinds of laws of physics another verse obeyed. There could have been anything inked onto the top of his foot for Peni and Miles would have accepted it as fact.

It was fine.

Peni was another of his soulmates.

That was good enough for Miles.

  
  
  
  
  
  


For Ham, he got a cartoonish sketch of the word POW.

He loved it.

He didn’t reach out to Ham much. Ham seemed content that their time together had passed, and was surprised to open the window the first time to find Miles on the other side. It was pretty weird, he had claimed. Miles pointed out that Ham was a talking pig, which was pretty weird in most verses, from his experience, and Ham had ceded the point.

He went on to warn Miles that reaching out like this might be a bad idea. Technically, they should have never met. Their verses should never have touched. They were breaking all known laws of reality, communicating like this. But he’d also told Miles that if the time came, and Miles reached out for help, Ham would answer.

He had been hurt, at first, but talking it over with Gwen and Ganke made it make a little more sense. In the end, he understood, and refrained from reaching out to Ham unless absolutely necessary. Ham always answered, and Miles smoothed a hand over the mark on his elbow with a smile.

  
  
  
  
  
  


Noir’s mark made him laugh.

The first time he’d met Peter Benjamin Parker, he’d been perched above him, and said the wind smelled like rain.

Noir was completely unperturbed when Miles had first opened the window to his first. He’d taken it the same way he took everything: with a shrug and a tip of his hat. He rolled with the punches and came up swinging, and all the multiverse was to him was another way to contact backup. It was strange, jumping into Noir’s world to lend a helping hand. It was creepy at first, the way all the color drained from around Miles, but if another Spider needed him, he was determined to be there.

Noir’s mark settled on the back of his shoulder, right over his shoulder blade. A swirling storm cloud with rain pattering down Miles’s skin. It was fitting for him. Noir was strange, but his presence was steady. He was younger than he claimed, Miles knew, but Noir had been through a lot. If you had a question, he had an answer. Not always a great answer, but an answer nonetheless.

Miles was pleased that Noir was a soulmate of his, too.

All of the Spiders were.

Now, if only he could reach Peter B.

  
  
  
  
  
  


“Hey, kiddo, need your help,” the call came late one night.

Miles was still up, cramming for a test with Ganke who stared at the open ‘verse window and the Spiderman on the other side of it with an open mouth.

“We’ve talked about this, Ganke,” Miles chided as he lurched into action, throwing himself into the closet to yank the suit on behind one of the open doors. By the time he emerged, B’s focus was on something in the distance, and Miles grabbed his outstretched hand to pull himself through. He turned at the last moment, yanking his mask up to meet Ganke’s eyes.

“If I’m not back by seven, make something up for me?”

“S-sure thing, dude,” Ganke stammered out, as the window winked shut and Miles was left in the dark with B, crouched on the side of a building.

“So what’s up? Is it the Lizard? Goblin? Your Fisk?”

B ignored Miles, scaling his way down the wall with a grace that spoke of years of experience. It almost looked lazy. Where Miles was left scrambling, B seemed half asleep in his movements. Miles wondered if he’d ever get there.

“Take a breath, bud,” B replied as he dropped fully to the ground, making a motion for Miles to do the same. “I actually want you to meet some people real quick, if you’ve got the time.”

Which was… hm.

Not? What he had been expecting?

“I’ve met MJ,” Miles replied automatically, and he could hear the confusion coloring his own voice.

B raised his hand in a dismissive wave. “Did I say that ‘people’ meant MJ? No, I didn’t. C’mon, kid,” he repeated, turning down an alley. Halfway down he braced a foot on the wall and began to walk up. Miles followed, curiosity piqued and more questions bubbling through his head but he couldn’t pick one to ask. Instead, he simply climbed, crawling up the wall behind B and pulling himself over the edge, where he was met with a familiar sight.

Well.

Sort of familiar.

B’s Deadpool was, if possible, even bigger than the one in Miles’ verse. Which would have maybe been a little scary, if not for the fact he trusted B more than maybe anyone else in the world.

(Besides his mom, _obviously._ )

Daredevil was there as well, different from Miles’s verse again but immediately recognizable in the horns. He cocked his head as Miles’s feet hit the roof, but remained otherwise entirely, eerily still.

“Guys, this is the baby Spider I was telling you about,” B laid a heavy hand on Miles’s shoulder, his other fist on his hip as Deadpool and Daredevil observed him like an offering.  
  
“Baby,” Deadpool repeated solemnly, while Daredevil’s mouth twitched with something like amusement.  
  
“He smells like ozone,” he murmured, taking a step closer and cocking his head, as if he was listening to the beat of Miles’s heart and memorizing the pattern. Which like. He probably was. “Like an incoming storm.”

And that was really fucking cool. He was taking that one home with him.

“Miles, this is Deadpool and Daredevil. I know you have your own, but MJ said I gotta work on my old man manners. So here we fuckin’ are. If you’re ever here helpin’ me out with something and shit goes bad, get to one of them. They’ll take care of you until shit gets sorted.”

And Miles felt the mark burn into place, right under Peter’s. B’s mark sat at the top of his spine, and beneath his mask, Miles was grinning. B had been at this longer than any of them. He had backup plans on backup plans, and now he had one for Miles. B had been iffy on the whole staying in touch thing at first, like Ham had. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to see or talk to Miles, he just didn’t want to royally fuck up the fabric of the multiverse.

B introducing Miles to his people meant that he knew he’d be seeing a lot more of Miles, and that meant Miles still had more to learn from him. The relief that melted over him was tangible. B even gave his shoulder a gentle, reassuring squeeze. Like he knew Miles had been anxious about it. He probably DID know. He was freaky perceptive like that, even while he was pretending he wasn’t.

Later, after Miles was home in his own verse and after his test, he got Ganke to snap a picture of his back so he could see the mark.

It looked like a newspaper clipping, with the ring of a coffee stain on it. Ganke told him he was just relieved it wasn’t a slice of pizza or something. But even Ganke’s little jibes couldn’t put a damper on his mood.

Miles was a canvas. A safe slate for the people he loved to leave their mark on him in his life. He was a piece of Gwen’s symphony and he was a variable in Peni’s equation. He was a punchline to Ham’s jokes and he was a cloud in Noir’s sky.

He was Peter Parker’s living legacy.

And he was a page in B’s story. Maybe even a whole chapter.

Miles was a stained glass window, each colored piece gleaming and glowing with the love they felt for him while he held them together with the lead of his heart.

**Author's Note:**

> please let me know what you thought, and please please please give some love to the artist who chose me! they always do incredible work and i'm always so excited when these lil things give me an opportunity to work more closely with them!
> 
> artist: shelbsart.tumblr.com
> 
> author: wahmenitu.tumblr.com


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